This was one of the attractions in the Machinery Hall of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a blast engine made by the I.P. Morris Company. Why a blast engine? To make Bessemer steel.
It was…
..designed to meet the wants of American Furnace Managers, certain requirements having been laid down as a standard which the firm have endeavored to follow as closely as possible. These requirements are, “completeness without sacrifice of accessibility to the moving parts, self-adjustment of parts liable to irregularities of wear, and steadiness of the whole structure and preservation of alignment by being self-contained.”
Was the engine a hit? Yes, I think so. The first engine of this design, at the time the picture was published, had come out eight years previously.
Since that time twenty-four, including the present engine, have been built and put into successful operation, showing that the efforts of the builders towards perfection of design have not been without their reward.
The image and descriptions are from a rather hefty volume of commemoration, The Great Centennial Exhibition Critically Described and Illustrated, by Phillip T. Sandhurst, published in Philadelphia and Chicago by P. W. Ziegler & Co. I found it via the Old Book Illustrations Scrapbook.